


Home and Hearth

by st_aurafina



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Returning Home, Team TARDIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 16:25:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17470967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_aurafina/pseuds/st_aurafina
Summary: Coming back to the TARDIS after an adventure is different for everyone, but it's starting to feel like home.





	Home and Hearth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AuroraCloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraCloud/gifts).



There's something special about coming back to the TARDIS after an adventure. At first, Yaz assumes it's exhilaration and relief – like that first cup of tea at the station house after a drama – but there seems to be more to it. 

Ryan always bounces through the doors, usually buzzing with the exuberance that is as likely to find an unexpected solution to a problem as it is to dump him into a vat of slime. A few steps inside and he's still bouncing, but he's shed the self-doubt that makes him second-guess himself. 

"We did great!" he says, or something like that, then slams his palms down on the console surface, like he's double high-fiving the TARDIS.

Graham, on the other hand, needs a moment of quiet once he's through that door. He rests his palm against the inner wall, lets the TARDIS prop him up for a breath or two. Then he changes to leaning on his elbow, grinning around the console room like he just won the door prize at the pub. 

The Doctor said the TARDIS was sentient in her own way, psychically aware of the people inside her. That is a really creepy concept, if you think about it too much, so Yaz tries not to think about it for the first few trips. Then, stumbling in tired and cold and exhausted, she's certain she feels it: a static charge gathering, only kind of inside her mind instead of on her fingertips. It's oddly pleasant, not intrusive, but warm and a tiny bit fizzy. 

Now she's used to it, Yaz pictures a bead curtain when she crosses that threshold, how it brushes against her, and her against it. Yeah, a bead curtain. A sentient bead curtain that's pleased to see you. 

Anyway. Even though they all experience it differently, it's clear that the TARDIS recognises them, and is glad to have them all back inside her walls. 

If Yaz ever doubted, she has only to watch the Doctor, watch her hurtle through that doorway after an adventure. She does it without looking, the Doctor does. She never trips on the step or bumps the doorjamb. It's easy to believe that she's been walking through that door for a thousand years or whatever. 

The times when Yaz is inside the TARDIS ahead of the Doctor, and gets to watch her make those first few steps, she sees the light from the console shift fractionally. It throws a different shadow down behind the Doctor, shapes that don't really correspond to her body: sometimes short, sometimes tall; hatted or not; curly hair or straight; long coat, short coat, fur coat, velvet, leather. 

Yaz wonders who those people are, and whether they're the Doctor's memories or the TARDIS's. Or both. Maybe it should be spooky, but it never is. The Doctor always, always smiles when she's stepped inside, only for a moment, only for the TARDIS. 

"So good to be home," the Doctor says, and Yaz agrees.


End file.
